


Night

by truckstophooker



Series: Rancid [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Pollution - Freeform, implied dystopia, the nature of nature reflecting the inner machinations of the human heart, you know all that stuff you feel as a teenager
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2018-03-24 23:30:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3788383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truckstophooker/pseuds/truckstophooker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twinkle twinkle, little star; where you've gone is much too far. Somewhere out where no one knows, where the warm wind never blows; twinkle twinkle, little star, how I wonder where you are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Night

For the first time in years, when they lay down at night to watch the stars, they can actually see them. From where they're laying on the half-dead grass and dusty dirt, there's a gap of clarity directly above that touches at the edge of their vision- free of smoggy haze, free of the black smoke that billowed up in the sky like the entire city that was burning miles away was just a cloud factory; there's no poison or shade clouds in the air stealing their breath and obscuring their peek into the heavens, showing them that maybe what they thought had died with the Earth simply didn't. For the first time in years, when they sit to stargaze, they actually do.

He mentions how he practically doesn't remember what they looked like- the stars, that is. Living in a city, you don't always get that luxury, and he's been here as far back as his memory goes. That's just how it happened- if pollution wasn't hiding away the stars, then it was skyscrapers blocking them out and getting in the way. You get used to looking down. He used to see lots of pictures, though, which he thinks is just fine. He justifies it by saying that you can't miss something you never really had. She wants to tell him that he _did_ have them, they were always there, but she also knows what he'd say.

 _"_ _I didn't know."_

When he looks up and see the lights, some dim, some bright- he is honestly almost afraid of them. It was a change from what he knew, and in this world, change never meant anything good. Change meant bad. Change meant dictatorship, coup de'tat, assassination, betrayal, anger, loneliness, atom bombs, tear gas, shrapnel, violence. Change had brought all of those things, and fear was all he felt from the stars. It was all he could do to not run, run from the little lights, not wanting to wait and see what they had in tow. He keeps his cool, however, at least as well as he can in the sweltering heat. There was a dead tree a few feet from them; he thought briefly about scaling it and setting up his scope. Perhaps he could take the stars out one after another; a bullet for every light- and then that big one, the moon, it was next. Just shoot it down, make it bleed, shoot them all down one by one, just like he's learned is the best way to get what you want. He wonders if he shot straight up at that moon if his bullet would ever come back down. Probably not, if it knew what was good. Take any chance you have to get out. Not everyone gets that chance.

She thinks it's cute at first, fearing the stars. Why would you be afraid? Stars are the candles that angels light to help guide you home, stars are freckles of the sky- if nighttime were a person, she'd be the most beautiful freckled thing you ever did see. Stars are... Well, stars are all things. They're whatever you want them to be for you, and in an instant... She can feel her heart breaking and must resist weeping. This boy, this strange little innocent, has never seen stars. Something as magnificent and beautiful as the night sky makes him wary of what the world will do to him and his home, what it's already done; and she can't help but feel the hot burn of angry tears held back at this- the world was the cruel one in the first place! Keeping its nature and gentility hidden and tucked away from this wild-eyed child of lovers and peacemakers. The world had no right to do this, she feels; if anyone could understand it, he could.

They stay like that for a while not saying anything, just watching, and eventually he can't take it anymore. He's a busybody and nerves don't help slow you down. He gets up and wraps his shawl around his head, throwing a leg over his moped and mentioning gruffly that if she wanted a ride back she'd better get over there. 

As she's moving towards him the sky shifts and the moon is swallowed, only the tree that few feet away from the spot they were sitting in left illuminated. They drive back into the city and the low-hanging clouds creep shut. The show is over.

He doesn't look back. She can't help it.

**Author's Note:**

> a majority of this was not in my drafts so congrats to me for making it up as i go!!


End file.
